Chapter 9 - The Contract
Darrell left after Leah threatened to call building security.
He sent Jada five messages in the next hour.
She did not answer any of them.
By Friday morning, Bellmore University had acknowledged her special circumstances appeal.
No promises.
No numbers.
Just a confirmation email.
Jada printed it anyway.
The next document.
At noon, Leah called.
“The Easton contract was never awarded.”
Jada sat at Renee’s dining table.
She had expected the answer.
It still hurt.
“What happened?”
“King Home Solutions submitted a bid.”
“When?”
“December.”
“And?”
“They made the short list in January.”
“So Darrell wasn’t completely lying.”
“No.”
Jada felt almost disappointed.
She wanted the world to become simple enough for Darrell to be a cartoon villain.
Leah continued.
“But the city selected another contractor on February fourteenth.”
Jada froze.
“February?”
“Yes.”
“Mom sent him seventeen thousand after that.”
“And ten thousand in March.”
Jada stood.
“Did she know?”
“That is what we need to determine.”
Renee entered carrying grocery bags.
Jada put the phone on speaker.
Leah repeated the timeline.
Renee slowly placed the bags on the counter.
“He knew the contract was gone.”
“Yes.”
“And he still took more money.”
“Yes.”
“Tamika knew?”
“We don’t know.”
Jada already had her phone out.
She called her mother.
Tamika answered.
“Jada?”
“When did Darrell tell you Bellmore—”
She stopped.
Wrong institution.
Her thoughts were colliding.
“When did Darrell tell you Easton went to somebody else?”
Silence.
“Mom.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Jada, please.”
“When?”
“Late February.”
Jada gripped the phone.
“Before or after you sent seventeen thousand?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Check.”
“How?”
“Your texts.”
Tamika exhaled.
“Hold on.”
Two minutes passed.
Jada could hear drawers opening.
Paper shifting.
Then Tamika returned.
“February twenty-seventh.”
“The seventeen thousand went February twenty-third.”
Renee closed her eyes.
Jada asked the next question.
“What about the ten thousand?”
Tamika began crying.
“No.”
“You knew the contract was gone before you sent the last ten.”
“He said another project was coming.”
“What project?”
“I don’t know.”
“You bought him an SUV after the reason for all of this disappeared?”
“He told me he needed it to meet new clients.”
Jada’s anger became almost calm.
“Did he threaten to leave you before or after you found out Easton was gone?”
Tamika said nothing.
Jada knew.
“After.”
“Yes.”
Everything aligned.
The contract failed.
Tamika tried to stop.
Darrell made the relationship conditional.
Tamika paid.
Jada closed her eyes.
“How could you?”
“I don’t know.”
“No. I need you to know.”
“Jada—”
“I need you to know because if you don’t understand why you did it, you’ll do it again.”
Tamika cried quietly.
“I thought if his business failed, everything we built would fail.”
“What did you build?”
“A life.”
“Whose?”
Tamika did not answer.
Jada hung up.
Renee watched her.
“That was harsh.”
“Was it wrong?”
“No.”
Jada sat.
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“I hate that part of me wants her to hurt.”
Renee pulled out a chair.
“That part of you is eighteen and just got betrayed by your mother.”
“That doesn’t make it good.”
“No. But feelings don’t have to be good. Actions do.”
Jada looked at her.
“Did Grandpa ever forgive his father?”
Renee blinked at the unexpected question.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Renee thought.
“Daddy didn’t speak to his older brother for eleven years.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“No.”
“So you don’t know.”
“I know he believed forgiveness and access were different things.”
Jada frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“He could forgive somebody and still not give them a key to his house.”
Jada absorbed that.
Later that afternoon, Leah emailed another discovery.
King Home Solutions had filed a financing statement with the state.
Its equipment, receivables, and business accounts were pledged as collateral to First Federal Commercial Bank.
Meaning if the company collapsed, the bank stood ahead of Jada’s trust.
The supposed eighteen percent ownership Tamika had purchased with Jada’s money could be worth nothing.
Worse, Darrell had signed the agreement knowing the company was already heavily encumbered.
Jada called Leah.
“So even if the company has assets, the bank gets paid first?”
“Generally, secured creditors have priority in the pledged collateral.”
“And my trust?”
“Your trust may have other claims, including against Darrell personally depending on the evidence.”
“Because he knew where the money came from?”
“That helps.”
Jada stared at Isaiah’s ledger.
“What would Grandpa have done?”
Leah paused.
“I knew Isaiah a long time.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“He would have documented everything.”
Despite herself, Jada smiled.
“That sounds right.”
“And then he would have made people explain themselves under oath.”
The smile disappeared.
Jada looked at the empty college fund folder on the table.
She had carried it from Tamika’s house with permission after Leah advised preserving documents.
The folder still smelled faintly like the cedar desk drawer where it had lived for years.
Jada opened the inside pocket.
A small receipt slipped out.
She had not noticed it before.
FIRST FEDERAL COMMERCIAL BANK.
SAFE DEPOSIT BOX ACCESS.
March 7.
Authorized visitor: Darrell King.
Jada stared.
Darrell had accessed a box connected to the trust.
The day after the final ten-thousand-dollar transfer.
She called Renee into the room.
Renee read the receipt.
Her face changed.
“Your grandfather kept the original trust certificates in a safe deposit box.”
Jada looked at her.
“What else was in it?”
Renee whispered.
“Bearer bonds.”
Jada’s heart began pounding.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
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Renee reached for her phone.
“But if Darrell opened that box, the missing ninety-two thousand might not be the whole story.”
